The School of Public Policy recently hosted 47 students from across campus who spent a day tackling the crucial question of how to create sustainable cities during a beta test of the NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition.

In the annual international competition, sponsored by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration and the Batten School at UVA, students use real-world data to solve hypothetical but realistic problems through policy development. The theme of the 2020 competition is sustainable cities, with a focus on transportation.

AMHERST, Mass. – Motif FoodWorks, the animal-free ingredient innovation company, and food scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will collaborate in a research partnership to optimize the process of characterizing functional properties of food proteins.

In an article introducing what she calls “one of the most important and rewarding experiences of my career so far,” assistant professor of mathematics Annie Raymond relates how she came to teach math to prisoners, first at the Washington State Reformatory’s “University Beyond Bars” program while a postdoc at the University of Washington in 2016. Later she taught at San Quentin State Prison in California and most recently in the Hampshire County Jail in Northampton. She came to campus in 2018.

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst has received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to offer a new bachelor of science degree in veterinary technology. The new four-year program, which will include two years of study at the university’s Amherst Campus, followed by two years of study at the Mount Ida Campus in Newton, begins this fall.

University Health Services (UHS) is keeping a close eye on the international coronavirus outbreak and has informed the University community that no one on campus has been infected with coronavirus or has exhibited symptoms. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has advised that the current risk to Massachusetts residents is low.

AMHERST, Mass. – Allison Vorderstrasse, a faculty member and Ph.D. program director at New York University, has been named the dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She will begin her appointment on July 1.

Artist Evelyn Rydz is in Mahoney Gallery on South Campus carefully working about 500 drinking glasses into the shape of the Merrimack River. She arranges them to resemble its vast mouth, its turns and some long stretches now used for recreation.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Asst. Prof. Sheree Pagsuyoin’s research on the impact of drug abuse on the environment has been recognized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a prestigious national faculty early career development award. 

The UMass Medical School Center for Tobacco Treatment Research and Training is rolling out a new statewide training program for school nurses to learn how to help teens quit vaping. According to the Massachusetts Youth Health Survey, 41 percent of Massachusetts high school students report having tried vaping, and one in five are currently vaping.

AMHERST, Mass. — Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy Emerita Barbara Partee has been awarded the 2020 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science for her "foundational contributions that synthesize insights from linguistics, philosophy, logic, and psychology to understand how words and sentences combine to express meaning in human language," by The Franklin Institute.